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Following last week’s fatal sinking of a tourist junk in Halong Bay, the repercussions are now being felt. Currently no overnight cruises are allowed on the Bay, 2 of the ship’s crew have been arrested, and the local authority have announced that “We are going to examine the safety of all the tourist boats in Quang Ninh and Halong Bay after this accident”, which implies that such examinations have never previously taken place.

Commemorating the victims of the Koh Pich tragedy of 22 November 2010, a Day of Mourning was observed on 25 November. There was an early morning ceremony held, attended by the Prime Minister and his wife, and high level government officers. In the afternoon, the Overseas Cambodian Investment Corporation, which holds the 99 years lease contract for the Koh Pich Island, observed its own ceremony

When I first received false information about the collapse of the ‘exit’ bridge at Diamond Island – Koh Pich in Khmer – due to a large crowd, a small island where festivities were usually held, I thought that this would happen anyway. Maybe I was too skeptical about any urban development in our city, as too many bad examples in the past can tell. Yet, what confirmed my fear was that I received more and more calls from friends about the rising death toll that finally reached 347, 221 of them women.

“Phnom Penh: One of the hundreds of victims of the terrible fire which destroyed more than 200 houses on 8 March 2010 said, between sobs and with tears, ‘My house was totally burnt down. I am seeking if anything remained which I could sell to get some money to buy food.’

“Kandal: A military police officer who drove a Lexus and killed a girl in Baek Chan commune in Ang Snuol District was detained for a short period and was then released, after there had been a request from his unit.

“The perpetrating car was confiscated and kept at the Kandal Police station to solve it as a civil case with a compensation for the victim's family according to the law.

“It should be noted that at 8:30 on 22 October 2009, there was a traffic accident on National Road 4 in Trapaeng Sang village, Baek Chan commune, Ang Snuol district, Kandal, where a Lexus car hit a girl driving a motorcycle from the opposite direction, killing her immediately.